1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to methods for treating livestock or poultry confinement facilities equipped with manure collection zones, such as pits or litter accumulations, to reduce and mitigate the effects of gaseous ammonia within the facility and thereby lessen the deleterious effects of ammonia on the livestock or poultry within the facility. More particularly, the invention is concerned with such methods wherein an aqueous treatment material comprising a partial calcium salt of a maleic-itaconic copolymer in combination with a partial ammonium salt of a maleic-itaconic copolymer. Such treatments promptly reduce the gaseous nitrogen content within the confinement facilities, and maintain such reductions over a significant period of time.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Ammonia is a common by-product of animal waste due to the often inefficient conversion of feed nitrogen into animal product. Livestock and poultry are often fed high-protein diets, which contain surplus nitrogen in order to assure that the animals' nutritional requirements are met. Nitrogen that is not metabolized into animal protein is secreted in the urine and feces of livestock and poultry, where further microbial action release ammonia into the air during manure decomposition.
Ammonia is typically considered an indoor air quality concern by poultry and livestock producers, because the gas accumulates inside poorly ventilated and/or managed animal confinement facilities. Elevated levels of nitrogen can have a negative impact on animal health and production, resulting in increased susceptibility of birds to bacterial respiratory infection, and decreased weight gains, feed conversions. Similarly, other livestock suffer under elevated ammonia conditions within a confinement facility.
Producers have adopted a number of strategies to lessen ammonia levels within confinement facilities, especially in cases of poultry coops or houses. Thus, it is known that a variety of amendments including aluminum sulfate (alum), ferrous sulfate, phosphoric acid, and other proprietary products may be sprayed or otherwise applied to the poultry litter. In the case of manure pits beneath livestock barns or houses, producers have principally relied upon ventilation to reduce ammonia levels. However, these methods have not completely solved the ammonia problems inherent in animal confinement facilities.
Specialty Fertilizer Products, LLC, of Leawood, Kans. (SFP), has heretofore commercialized a series of maleic-itaconic copolymers principally for use with solid or liquid ammoniacal or phosphate fertilizers, such as urea or UAN fertilizers, in order to significantly increase the performance of the fertilizers as evidenced by increased yields.
These prior products include Nutrisphere-N® for Liquid Nitrogen Fertilizers, which is a partial calcium salt of a maleic-itaconic copolymer in water with a solids content of at least 30% w/w, and more preferably about 40% w/w. The copolymer is formulated using equimolar amounts of maleic and itaconic moieties. The final product has a pH of 1-2 and is a light brown to yellow viscous liquid.
Another such product is AVAIL® for Liquid Phosphate Fertilizers is a partial ammonium salt of a maleic-itaconic copolymer in water with a solids content of at least 30% w/w, and more preferably about 40% w/w. The copolymer is formulated using equimolar amounts of maleic and itaconic moieties. The final product has a pH of about 2 and is also a light brown to yellow viscous liquid.
SFP has also previously commercialized a manure nutrient manager product under the trademarks More Than Manure® or MTM®, which is primarily designed to reduce phosphorous lock-up and nitrogen loss when applied to manure in an open-air pit or lagoon, or directly onto litter after field application of the litter. MTM® is an aqueous mixture made up of two-thirds by volume Nutrisphere-N® for Liquid Nitrogen Fertilizers and one-third by volume of AVAIL® for Liquid Phosphate Fertilizers, having a solids content of from about 30-60% w/w, a pH of about 3 and a specific gravity of from about 1.1-1.4. Other benefits of the MTM® product include increased crop rotation flexibility, biodegradability, and reduction of manure solids. In such prior uses of MTM®, no odor-reduction studies were conducted, but numerous MTM® users expressed the opinion of a notable reduction of odor from the use of the product.